The next Sunday, Wilson was already at the underground platform; in a special isolated room, getting ready to kickstart the official matches by fighting the first one. Horr had chosen to give him preferential treatment because he saw great potential in Wilson. At least that was what he told the innocent boy, but really, it was because of the ratings Wilson alone had gotten for Horr's wrestling ring. High ratings meant more avenues to make revenues and so the owner and host of the underground wrestling platform was more than willing to treat him differently.
This earned much ire from the others fighting for a spot in the rankings. Their thoughts were:
"Why was he given a private room to prepare while we have to wait with the crowd, risking the chances of being sabotaged before the matches?"
"Yeah! We had to fight to earn our spot while he did nothing and now he even has a space to himself when he isn't even a ranker yet."
"
"Bias. I tell you, Horr is being biased."
"And I thought he was different."
They complained but did not protest. After all, in the end, what really mattered was their fighting proficiency because they all knew if Wilson does not prove his worth, Horr would personally kick his ass out.
Horr, who was sitting at his regular position, looked at the time. It was nine on dot. He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers. This gesture was barely finished when he disappeared and reappeared in the elevated platform that was fast transforming into a large, three meter square fighting ring with three ropes and turnbuckles like the rings had been set up from the olden times. The major difference was their difference in durability compared to regular ones.
Horr took a quick glance at one of his workers that dealt with the live recording to confirm that he was live, before he raised his voice and ensured it reverberated around the underground 'stadium'; as Bar liked to call it.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Horr's Underground Wrestling Platform staged at our headquarters." He started.
"This his hosting is far getting out of hand now, don't you think?" Bar said, squinting his eyes at Horr who was speaking and gesticulating wildly in excitement.
"Yes, it is!" Vox agreed.
"But it looks quite effective. The crowd is already rather pumped up!" Jim added.
Both Vox and Bar had nothing to say to counter that. Wild and exaggerated as it might be, its effectiveness could not be overlooked.
"I see he has seen the award posters." Vox clicked his tongue. He was referring to the 'Host of the Year Award' posters.
Jim looked at the number of competitors.
"These fighters seem to have increased in numbers." He spoke his thoughts out loud.
"Yes! Twenty has always been the planned number. Horr actually only needs five of them. The most he would hire would be eight of the total and that is on a maybe basis." Bar answered.
"He was exaggerating again?" Vox asked with a chuckle.
"Yes!" Bar answered.
Jim was still worried about Wilson. It was beginning to bother him how much Wilson was visiting the hospital.
"Will Wilson go first again?" He asked.
"Definitely! Wilson's win was very controversial and people are quite eager for him to show up and prove his worth." Bar explained, his eyes following a lady in a short, tight, purple dress, purple hair and purple lipstick on; as she stroked her whip lovingly.
"Then, should Horr not make him fight last?" Vox asked. Was that not like, the most normal thing to do for marketing purposes.
"No. I don't really understand the reasoning behind it but I do know that Horr is more than happy to follow Joe Tiger's instructions to the tee." What Bar meant was that Horr had read this strategy in the book he spoke about in the previous chapter.
Wilson, appeared in the ring just like last time. This time, he was a little prepared. His gauntlets had not been teleported with him the last match when he foght 'Stone Hands'. He had time to think it through in the hospital and assumed that whoever or whatever was making the dramatic, short distance teleportation possible, had for some reason, chosen not to send his gauntlets in the ring with him. As he later discovered from Bar, Horr had added a hidden rule against certain kinds of weapons some time last year and the gauntlets he got from Old Rogers fell in that forbidden weapons category.
He was caught off guard last time but this time, he had Jim get him new gauntlets that were acceptable in the ring.
As the wheel spun, he put the gauntlets on. They were a pair of plain silver coloured gauntlets that covered his hands all the way to his elbows. The wheel slowed to a stop.
"And his opponent," Horr yelled from the middle of the ring. "Dash!"
††††††
Name: Dash
Age: Hidden
Height: 5"8 feet
Ability: Dark Dash
††††††
Dash was clad in all black that covered every single part of him except for his eyes. He was like a ninja and even used a black dagger that he reverse-gripped.
The Dark Dash ability was actually just a relatively rare variant of the super speed ability. It incorporated darkness into the user's every step, the usage of which was unlimited. After all, the only limitations to any one ability is the users' level of creativity; their ingenuity when it came to their knowledge and application of their abilities. Dash just so happened to be one of the newly added fighters who was very creative in his use of his ability.
"Alright, you know the rules. As soon as I poof off, the match begins. If you win and you think you can go on, you can choose to spin the wheel for your next opponent."
*************
At this point, the author feels a need to explain the rules in detail. There were currently a total of twenty wrestlers now. Within the time span of two months, each of them was expected to have fought at least five matches. Winning five matches consecutively would guarantee a wrestler their spot in the ranks. When a wrestler won a match, the wrestler could choose to ask for their next random opponent. The wheel was programmed so as to never put the same wrestlers against each other twice. That is, two wrestlers who had faced each other will not be pitted against each other again. At least, not until the fight for ranks was over.
If there were two wrestlers with the same win-loss points by the the end of these two months and they were both on the rank. They would face off in a one on one to determine who would rank higher and hence, earn more money and if they were more than two, it would become a Battle Royale of sorts.
It was common occurrence for the last rank to be contested for by multiple wrestlers with the same points. As it was not right of Horr to just randomly select whoever he wanted as the last ranker, he had come up with the idea of a Battle royale where winner takes all.
*************
Back to the match. After saying his piece, as abruptly as always, Horr disappeared. The audience roared in one voice. They were excited to see how this match would go. A speedster against someone who was already being tagged as possibly the dirtiest, most shameless wrestler in history.